Salt brine 4-5 nicer sized cod fillets over night in the fridge. Other fish will do, I've done this with Pollock also.Remove from brine, rinse clean, then lightly poach in water with a cup of white wine. Lightly, don't turn em into mush. Let cool.

The dish of mine that I actually created and people seem to like a lot is my Baconless Salad. I have cookbook that claims to have a salad that tastes just like bacon. It does not. But I thought it was interesting to try to make a salad that hits the salty, fatty, meaty, smoky, crunchy zone bacon resides in. Here's my current best shot:

Arrage the racks on your oven so you have space for two big racks. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Dice your mushrooms and toss them both in olive oil. When the oven comes up to temperature spread the mushrooms on a baking sheet and put them in the oven and wait 20 minutes. In the meantime chop your kale and toss it in olive oil. When the 20 minutes is up put the kale in the oven as well and wait 10 minutes. While you're waiting dice up your avocado. When the time is up remove the mushrooms and kale (both of which should be browning nicley) and mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Serve immediately.

When I used to have a yard, friends from far and wide would come for my ribs. Ribapalooza they called it when the smoke was in the air. Hell, a Pyramid Brewery rep even sponsored one of my barbecues. Good free beer for all. Folks would say, "how do you do it, Solid State Vittles?" I'd say "it's in the rub." "What is in the rub?" "Ay, there's the rub. I'm not telling." Have to admit, I'd go out of my way to find the dinosaur bones too. Those are the mammoth beef ribs. Many have tried to make them right, many have failed.

I also make the best Turkish lentil and lamb shank dish in the world. THE WORLD.

Probably my brisket. I grew up eating having to suffer through brisket once or twice a year at Jewish holidays and always hated it, fortunately there were always plenty of awesome fatty Jewish side dishes I could fill up on (like noodle kugel with sour cream and cream cheese). My mom was always trying to come up with ways to make me like brisket, like a recipe that used a can or Coke as the braising liquid but to me it still sucked and was dry and tough. I think I was just unusually picky because others seemed to like it.

A few years ago, we were having a Seder and I decided that I would make the damn brisket and figure out a way to make it palatable. So I figured I'd try brining it, and hunted around online to find others who had done the same but no one had. I learned that you can brine it for 2 weeks and have corned beef, or brine it and smoke it but no one had brined it and then braised it. The thing came out as tender as good corned beef/pastrami but tasted like brisket. Everyone raved, you could cut it with a fork and juice came out. I'd finally found a way to make brisket moist and here's the recipe:

Boil water and add everything above except the brisket, simmer and stir for a couple minutes then cool completely. Place brisket in large ziplock bag and fill up the rest of the way with brine. Seal back and place it in a large bowl in the refrigerator in case it leaks and leave for 36-48 hours moving around every 12 hours to make sure every part is exposed to the brine. Then pour out brine, rinse off the brisket and let sit out for 2 hours to dry a bit. Then prepare it as you would a braised brisket, my general recipe is below:

Heat a pan large enough to comfortably hold the brisket over high heat with oil until screaming hot. As the pan is heating, pat down the brisket with paper towels to assure that it's very dry then add to the hot pan. Brown for a couple minutes then turn over and brown the other side. Remove the brisket from the pan, lower heat to medium and add the onions, carrots, and celery. Saute for about 5 minutes until they are starting to brown then turn up heat for 1 minute before adding the redwine. Scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to get up any brown bits stuck to the bottom and cook until the wine is reduced by about 50%. in a roasting pan or dutch oven, just big enough to hold the brisket, place the brisket inside and pour in the vegetables and wine. Add the bayleaf, thyme and enough beef stock so that the brisket is about 3/4s submerged. Cover TIGHTLY with either a lid or foil or both and place in a 350 oven. Bake for 30 minutes then reduce heat to 325 or a bit lower like 315 such that it just barely simmers and cook for another 3 hours. Remove and let cool completely in the liquid, if you keep it covered tightly you can leave it overnight as any bacteria inside is dead. Refrigerate until chilled, remove brisket, spoon off any fat and slice brisket before returning it either to the pan or a container. To serve, reheat and taste the liquid for seasoning, it should be fine with the salt from the brined brisket but could use a dash of vinegar to cut the richness.

Ingredients:1) One turkey carcass with whatever meat your tribe did not eat at the big holiday dinner2) Lots of carrots (between 2 & 4 pounds)3) As many onions as you can stand to chop (1 to 3 pounds)4) One big head of celery (minus a couple of stalks to garnish your Bloody Marys)5) Mushrooms, lots (This is the expensive part. Generally the more mushrooms the better. 1 to 5 pounds - any variety or a mix.)6) salt (to taste)7) black pepper, fresh ground (and I mean fresh. Don't be a weenie!) to taste.8) Old Bay Seasoning, several scoops, use your judgement9) dried bay leaves, whole (12 large or 24 small)10) brown rice, 1 or 2 pounds11) dried beans of your choice, 2 pounds (exactly, not an ounce more or less) Maybe even one of those 15 bean mixed bags. I often use dried baby lima beans when I can find them.12) ½ bottle of fresh white wine, especially if it was a little too sweet. (optional)

Step by Step Directions: Make yourself a Bloody Mary. Garnish with celery. Take your turkey carcass, neck, giblets, skin, pan drippings, etc. and put in your largest pot and cover with water. You may have to tear him up, but he won't feel a thing. He's dead. Bring to a boil, then simmer covered for 2 hours or so. If you have to leave the house, shut off the stove and just leave it covered and turn it back on upon return. Strain the liquid (aka the stock) into one (or more) tall containers and put into fridge. Some hours later when the fat has risen to the top and coagulated you can scrape it off and toss it out (or sell it to someone to make diesel fuel). Now the best time to sort the meat from the bones and skin is just a few minutes after the stock is strained for cooking and separating. The meat will be warm and will fall off the bones easily. If you stick it into the fridge to do later (like tomorrow) your fingers won't like the cold handling. Please wash your hands really well before doing this (and again after. They're going to be a little greasy.). If your dog has been a good girl or boy you can give them some skin or gristle, but not bones. If a poultry bone splinters in your pup you'll never forgive yourself. Have another Bloody Mary. It's hours later, and the fat is separated from the stock. Have a nice glass of white wine, maybe a reisling or something from Germany. Put the stock back into your big pot and put it on low heat. Throw in the dried beans. Time to chop. It's going to take a while so put on some music. That Gnarls Barkley is pretty good. Do some carrots. If you get bored do the celery then go back to the carrots. Then onions and more carrots. Then shrooms and more carrots. Dice the leftover turkey meat. Throw things into the pot as you chop. Put on another CD. Toss in some salt, some Old Bay, the bay leaves, and grind some black pepper. Simmer covered on low heat for a couple hours. Maybe toss in the rest of that wine you were drinking earlier. Now you have an option with the brown rice. You can add it directly to the soup pot with enough additional water, or you can cook it separately and serve the soup over a scoop of rice. Pick out the bay leaves as you serve. Makes 2 to 4 gallons and freezes quite well. Now, drive it all over town to your friends but plan a route with all right turns and make sure your tires are fully inflated, your oil is synthetic, your plugs are platinum, and your air filter is clean. Throw in some injector cleaner for good measure.

Believe it or not, cheaper canned tuna (in water) works better than the dry white expensive stuff. Get a can or two. Drain them fully. Dump the drained tuna in a bowl. Mash it up with a fork. Add (to taste), sea salt, ground black pepper and paprika. Add a handful of finely diced onion and finely diced dill pickle (not sweet pickle!). Now, add a dollop of real mayonnaise. Stir. Is the salad still dry and crumbly? Add more mayo. Stir. At some point your tuna salad will become one uniform ball. You have now reached the proper amount of mayo. STOP.

Get two decent slices of bread. You can toast them if you like. Either way, use good artisan bread and not that thin floppy white crap that children use for bologna sandwiches. Put a half inch of tuna salad on a slice, then top with thinly sliced tomato that has been drained of excess tomato water. Add some lettuce, again drained after washing. Top with the other slice of bread. From here, you can eat it and watch MST3K on TV.

Alternatively, you can put the half inch of tuna salad on untoasted bread, add a layer of sliced cheese then fry it up in a buttered pan for a tuna melt. Add the tomato and lettuce after each side is fried golden brown. You can now watch MST3K, but tuna melts typically go better with British comedies.

DGS:Red Shirt Blues: DGS: Red Shirt Blues: Pesto sauce from scratch, grow the basil on my back porch. Mix with three cheese tortellini, and sweet Italian sausage I get from a deli. Serve with tossed salad, fresh rolls and a good zinfandel. For dessert apple slices with assorted cheeses and port wine.

Wifey's not so sure she'd like a pesto. I've hesitated to buy a pre-made one.. you wouldn't by chance be willing to share that, would ya? Or perhaps point me to a general one you built off of if that's how you learned to make one?

2 cups fresh basil leaves packed1/2 to 1 cup olive oil (start with lower amount add more to get taste and consistency or to stretch recipe)4 garlic cloves (start with 3 then add more if you want to taste)3 tblsp pinenuts1/3 to one half cup of grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (test by tasting)1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romanodash of salt and pepperand maybe some sugar....just a bit

Use a food processor. You can use a blender but it has to be a kick ass blender or it wont mix this. Let it sit for a few hours and mix it now and again. Something happens in that time period and it makes it taste better. Try to use all of it at once. You can freeze it for later but it will lose some of it's zing. Nothing beats this fresh.

Excellent, thanks!

If pine nuts are too expensive, I've found that unsalted, pan roasted sunflower seeds make an interesting substitute.

I grew up in Hunterdon County, NJ. One of the healthiest white-tail populations around. Fed on corn and soybean. Dad and I used to hunt. Wasn't gamey at all. And especially not when I got done with it in that scallopine.